Gavin Newsom Quotes

If we continue to fight the National Rifle Association on their home court, which is the legislative front, I think we'll continue to be frustrated. But when you have an ability to go directly to the public, that's a completely different field of engagement, and I think the NRA is not adept at that kind of engagement.

- Gavin Newsom

I have differences of opinion within my own family, an Irish Catholic family. So, I do respect those that disagree.

- Gavin Newsom

Take responsibility. Step up and step in. Because at the end of the day, folks, we are our behaviors.

- Gavin Newsom

Cultural tourism surveys consistently rate San Francisco's art industry as a core reason for visiting.

- Gavin Newsom

Californians are blessed with the remarkable leadership of Gov. Jerry Brown, who... has led our state to firm fiscal footing and brought us to the enviable position of dreaming - and achieving - big dreams again.

- Gavin Newsom

When Californians see something we truly believe in, we say so and act accordingly - without evasiveness or equivocation.

- Gavin Newsom

It's nature-nurture, right? I've been nurtured by Californians.

- Gavin Newsom

Government is the ultimate monopoly. And monopolies, as any economist will tell you, often breed complacency and a lack of innovation.

- Gavin Newsom

Involvement in the arts engages kids in their community, improves self-esteem, reclaims at-risk youth, and builds the creative skills that are required of a 21st century workforce.

- Gavin Newsom

I'll be kicked out before I rust out.

- Gavin Newsom

Like any small business owner, I experienced the pressures of building a company from the ground up - developing a business plan, balancing the books, meeting payroll and building a customer base.

- Gavin Newsom

I've never been a fan of pretense or procrastination. After all, our state is defined by its independent, outspoken spirit.

- Gavin Newsom

There's something called CEQA in California - NEPA at the federal level. There's indigenous lands and autonomies relating to governance on those lands. There are all kinds of obstructions as it relates to just getting zoning approval and getting building permits.

- Gavin Newsom

One of the defining dynamics of 2008 has been the emerging wave of new, young voters getting involved and storming the gates of the traditional political establishment.

- Gavin Newsom

Do what you think is right, because one damn thing is an absolute, certainly: We come and go. Politicians are a dime a dozen.

- Gavin Newsom

I really feel it's time to dissolve the current relationship of governor and lieutenant governor by running as a ticket.

- Gavin Newsom

President Trump is quick to attack American students, immigrants, women, the LGBT community, journalists, and our international allies but he is either too weak or too ignorant to stand up to white supremacists and others who spew hatred.

- Gavin Newsom

I made bad decisions. That being said - the question is, does the public care about that?

- Gavin Newsom

An arts education helps build academic skills and increase academic performance, while also providing alternative opportunities to reward the skills of children who learn differently.

- Gavin Newsom

San Francisco has long been a leader in the arts, nurturing generations of painters, sculptors, poets, novelists, playwrights, film-makers, and performing artists and innovators of every kind.

- Gavin Newsom

As Mayor, I will fully support my Arts Commission and its professional selection committees so that they can commission a full range of public art that is daring and, when appropriate, daringly traditional.

- Gavin Newsom

The Republican Party - that was the end of the Republican Party. What Pete Wilson did with the xenophobia and the negative attitude, all this sort of anti-crime backlash.

- Gavin Newsom

The people that are serving you gas, the people that are in your restaurants serving you, the firefighters, and police officers are members of the gay and lesbian community. They're members of our broader community.

- Gavin Newsom

Founders Den provides the kind of collaborative and creative atmosphere to foster new ideas not only for emerging new businesses, but government as well.

- Gavin Newsom

A mistake that a lot of us have made, related to those who advocate for gun safety legislation, is that we try to process it through our legislative bodies, and that's where the NRA's strength lies.

- Gavin Newsom

The tech genie is out of the bottle; you can't put it back in.

- Gavin Newsom

You only get one chance in this thing called life. I know that is a bit maudlin and obscure, but it's a fact, and you can make a profound difference in people's lives without having a title in front of your name.

- Gavin Newsom

If Wikileaks didn't resolve that question for folks - at the end of the day, there are no secrets. We're living in a glass neighborhood, in a fishbowl, and technology, white hat hackers, the folks that are doing the right thing with hacking.

- Gavin Newsom

San Franciscans know we live in the most beautiful city in the world, a jewel on the edge of the Golden Gate.

- Gavin Newsom

Livable neighborhoods with a vibrant street life will stimulate our economic life as well.

- Gavin Newsom

Accessing capital to start a business can be a daunting process, especially for entrepreneurs who start out with a great idea, but have no real familiarity with the business world.

- Gavin Newsom

Prop 8 did something that no other state in the history of this country has done. It took away the rights of people that already were legally affirmed. Imagine someone putting something on the ballot saying your wedding, your marriage is no longer valid.

- Gavin Newsom

I don't know many better training grounds than being mayor of San Francisco - those were pretty intense years in terms of reporting and scrutiny.

- Gavin Newsom

If you're trying to understand why it is that certain things happen in Sacramento and certain things don't, at the end of the day, it comes down to the issue of incentives: We do what we're incentivized to do.

- Gavin Newsom

We do not have the right to discriminate against people.

- Gavin Newsom

As Mayor, I will use my experience to make San Francisco a place where small businesses can thrive.

- Gavin Newsom

As Mayor, I will lead city government, businesses, and community groups to support innovative projects that will make San Francisco streets and public places vibrant and healthy.

- Gavin Newsom

During the 1990s, San Francisco lived through one of the most intense economic booms of its history.

- Gavin Newsom

San Francisco businesses face many challenges, including high rents, regulatory burdens, and the rising cost of workers compensation insurance and employee health plans.

- Gavin Newsom

The arts can play a vital role in revitalizing neighborhoods, using and improving vacant space, bringing new jobs and new sense of opportunity, and improving public safety by generating more foot traffic and more eyes on the street.

- Gavin Newsom

California is infamous for passing things and then waking up and saying, 'What the hell did we just pass?'

- Gavin Newsom

There is nothing worse than a politician that gets defensive and starts attacking the media - and it always looks bad for the politician, because you sign up for this. You live by the sword, you die by the sword.

- Gavin Newsom

But living in uncertain times does not mean San Franciscans must live in fear.

- Gavin Newsom

We can build new housing while preserving the quality and character of adjacent residential districts and ensuring infill development strengthens the surrounding neighborhood.

- Gavin Newsom

As mayor of San Francisco, I will provide the vision and work hard to make San Francisco a beautiful, well-planned city with excellent housing and transportation options.

- Gavin Newsom

The 21st Century has begun as an era of uncertainty, with a heightened focus on security and public safety.

- Gavin Newsom

Even though he's a third-generation San Franciscan, my father's very European in some ways, and he loves wine.

- Gavin Newsom

People don't care anymore because they don't believe in us; they don't trust us. And that's why we should change politics, not just accept the cynical frame that, 'Well, that's just politics.'

- Gavin Newsom

There was a lot of hype about social media in President Obama's first campaign. It was important, but it wasn't as important as I think people let on.

- Gavin Newsom

San Francisco lags behind other communities in providing a vital, vibrant and ecologically sustainable urban canopy, as well as open space in the city.

- Gavin Newsom

Historically, San Franciscans have not valued street trees as much as other communities have.

- Gavin Newsom

The economy is not immutable; it's not about natural laws. It's about rules, and we make the rules.

- Gavin Newsom

My daughter's met Hillary Clinton, so she's got a strong bias. But she, of course, parrots me and goes, 'Oh, Donald Trump, I don't like him!' I'm like, 'That's good!'

- Gavin Newsom

Since Sandy Hook, I have sat back as a father and been mesmerized by the inability of the federal government to do anything substantively on gun safety.

- Gavin Newsom

I just butcher a book. Everything I underline I assume is important to me.

- Gavin Newsom

I don't want to let the rest of this country drift into the abyss. I want to fight for it.

- Gavin Newsom

There's been a gap between perception and reality, the perception being that California is on the cutting edge of gun safety legislation when, in fact, there are a number of areas where we have fallen behind.

- Gavin Newsom

While it was refreshing to finally see an openly gay man speak at a Republican convention, it doesn't remove the stain of selecting Mike Pence, America's most anti-LGBT governor.

- Gavin Newsom

The kind of cynical politics of divide and conquer, that's shameful stuff, and I don't know - people live their life like that, but I don't know how they look back and feel good about themselves.

- Gavin Newsom

City government can and must help San Franciscans prepare for emergencies in order to avoid tragedy where possible and minimize loss of life and property when emergencies occur.

- Gavin Newsom

If you're not open, you're not transparent, you're still holding on to vaults of information, you're not going to build that trust.

- Gavin Newsom

If, in this country, a simple majority of people can start stripping away the rights of a protected class in the minority, that's a pretty alarming thing.

- Gavin Newsom

People always thought I'd never get elected outside San Francisco; I was always more worried that I'd never get elected again inside San Francisco.

- Gavin Newsom

We need to allow people to bypass government... to look to themselves for solving problems rather than asking the government to do things for them.

- Gavin Newsom

You need to let go of your fear and anxiety of being judged by others.

- Gavin Newsom

My mother - it's not one of those waxing-poetic kind of things - she literally worked two or three jobs most of her life. So I personally experienced that, even though I had these great friends and associations who had unlimited amounts of money. That juxtaposition was an interesting one.

- Gavin Newsom

San Francisco can no longer afford to be a city divided between downtown and neighborhoods, with a downtown that becomes a ghost town when workers go home for the evening.

- Gavin Newsom

The whole idea that the Constitution of the United States would be used to advance a political agenda is absurd.

- Gavin Newsom

You'd be hard pressed to find a bigger champion of high-speed rail than me when the bond went to voters. I believed in it.

- Gavin Newsom

As Mayor of San Francisco, I will work hard to ensure that, in the event of natural or man-made disasters, San Franciscans are prepared and our City is protected.

- Gavin Newsom

I'm not courting labor. I come from a labor background. To me, it's just intuitive.

- Gavin Newsom

These Millennials are volunteering more; they're smarter than ever.

- Gavin Newsom

I did not love reading, spelling, math and science. I struggled. I was a terrible speller.

- Gavin Newsom

If you distill the essence of everything, what life is about, every single one of us is given a short moment in time on this planet, and we all have one universal need and desire, and that is to be loved and to love. And to deny that for your own political expediency, I don't want to live in that column. It ain't worth it.

- Gavin Newsom

Make no mistake: conversion therapy is not about 'praying away the gay.' It's an emotional torture against our most innocent citizens: our children.

- Gavin Newsom

Separate inherently is not equal. There's a reason why $45 million was spent against marriage equality. It's because people understand the word does have meaning. And equality comes when we accept the same notions and the same institutions for everyone, regardless of race and gender and regardless of sex orientation.

- Gavin Newsom

Do I support a driver's license for everybody? The answer is yes.

- Gavin Newsom

We recognize that the arts are an essential part of San Francisco's cultural vitality.

- Gavin Newsom

We must continue to step in and stand up to resist reckless rhetoric and actions in a peaceful and forceful manner.

- Gavin Newsom

Even if Donald Trump's successful, it's the beginning of the end if this rhetoric persists in the Republican Party.

- Gavin Newsom

I act on my principles, whether they're popular or not.

- Gavin Newsom

California is a bellwether state. California was the first state in the United States to overturn the laws against interracial marriage. It took 19 years for the rest of the country to come around to that point of view.

- Gavin Newsom

The question for politicians here is fundamental: You can read the polls, or you can change the polls. Stand up on the things you believe in.

- Gavin Newsom

I have a very successful father-in-law and family with very different political views.

- Gavin Newsom

Street and park trees provide tremendous benefits to cities.

- Gavin Newsom

Government doesn't have to come up with new killer features on its own. It has to step aside and let others come up with them.

- Gavin Newsom

People don't have to agree with me. They can say, 'My gosh, I can't believe I'm listening to this guy. I can't disagree with him more.' But at least they know that I'm going to fight for things that I believe in. And I don't need to be in formal office to do that.

- Gavin Newsom

We are not going to turn our backs on people who have been persecuted, turn our backs on people who have been threatened by terror.

- Gavin Newsom

It was difficult to realize, 'I'm lieutenant governor.' And Brown appropriately reminded me of that.

- Gavin Newsom

The value of an arts education is widely accepted, especially in California.

- Gavin Newsom

Government can do best by simply getting out of the way.

- Gavin Newsom

I'm sick and tired of politics and politicians as usual.

- Gavin Newsom

When you have a good idea, the money flows.

- Gavin Newsom

Are we going to solve the issue of poverty? Absolutely not. Are we going to have an impact? I'm committed to it, and if we don't, I'll have no regrets because we're going to try everything we can.

- Gavin Newsom

Society becomes how we behave.

- Gavin Newsom

Separate is not equal. Civil unions are civil unions. Marriage is marriage. They're different institutions.

- Gavin Newsom

You've got to change incentives for good behavior as opposed to just disincentivizing bad behavior.

- Gavin Newsom

If high-wage, high-cost nations like Germany and Japan can compete on exports, California can.

- Gavin Newsom

Just because you have a learning difficulty or difference doesn't mean you aren't smart.

- Gavin Newsom

I will negotiate with my worst enemy.

- Gavin Newsom

We have rules that no longer are relevant to the world we're living in. Our regulatory system can't keep up.

- Gavin Newsom

I think Thanksgiving is the perfect occasion to break open a buttery, oaky Chardonnay from California.

- Gavin Newsom

As goes California, so goes the rest of the nation.

- Gavin Newsom

There's a secret sauce in California, and I hope people pay attention to it.

- Gavin Newsom

I don't learn in a certain way, but I have other skills.

- Gavin Newsom

I'm really more of an executive.

- Gavin Newsom

No-Drama Obama? Yeah, that's not me.

- Gavin Newsom

You can love me or hate me and disagree with me, but you sure as hell know where I stand.

- Gavin Newsom

Good people can disagree.

- Gavin Newsom

Guys like me don't necessarily progress very far, which is fine.

- Gavin Newsom

I'm much more optimistic about this next generation because this is the first global generation.

- Gavin Newsom

At the end of the day, there's not a day that goes by without a mass shooting.

- Gavin Newsom